Ex-lawyer's Disbarment Upheld

May 19, 1992

The state Supreme Court Monday upheld the disbarment of a former Hartford lawyer who has battled for more than 10 years to retain his Connecticut license.

Four of the five justices rejected M. Daniel Friedland's claims that Hartford Superior Court Judge Samuel Fried erred in disciplining him. Justice Robert D. Glass, writing for the majority, said Fried used clear and convincing evidence of misconduct in justifying Friedland's disbarment.

Justice Robert I. Berdon dissented, saying Fried abused his discretion in not allowing Friedland a continuance of his trial. Friedland had asked for the delay because he said he lacked sufficient money to come to Connecticut from Florida, because his wife was hospitalized shortly before the trial and because he had to care for his 5-year-old son.

Friedland was disciplined for failing to represent properly four separate clients, all of whom paid him fees he never returned, according to evidence in the case.

When he came to Connecticut in the late 1970s, Friedland was in the process of being disbarred in Indiana. The Indiana Supreme Court removed his license to practice law there in 1981.

In 1977, Friedland was fired as the Connecticut General Assembly's chief counsel for a liquor industry price-fixing investigation because he did not tell legislators he was being investigated for disciplinary violations by the Indiana bar.

Friedland was able to stay in business here despite being charged by officials with practicing law without a license in 1982.

Two years later, a Hartford judge charged him with contempt of court because he called a prosecutor an animal during a trial